AFL Autopsy Loss to the Hawkes

[MiguelM]

Not sure the Hawks are world beaters though. Lose clearances and inside 50s like that to a top 6 side and they lose that one badly IMO.

We still not making the most of clearance/inside 50 dominance.

 

[windyhill]

Too much of this tonight. Hawks barely slipped.

 

[bombreys]

Who comes in for Rids and Langers?

Hayes & Edwards??

Those changes will answer a few questions I think.

Last year, we rush back an injured Lav and Wright. If Hayes and Edwards come in, we’d officially have more 2025 debutants at Round 2 than we did for the entirety of 2024

 

[Old man fletch]

Reckon Prior has to be dropped for Saad.

Shiel is not our future and is a bit of a liability. I like Martin up forward but if we have to move him back for the time being until we find a better option at HB then so be it.

Jury is still out on the Draper/Bryan combo. Felt like we were a little slow due to it.

Please no. He was a liability down back last year. Gave us run, but butchered kicks on the regular leading to easy opposition goals. Also meant we didn't have his attacking flare in the forward half

 

[Mercurial89]

cousin brad taking a formula that worked (duz in the guts) and changed it. hope it’s the last we see of those changes

Whilst I agree to a point, Durham is coming off a injury I'm fairly sure and was beat to shit by end of last year.
If they are protecting him a bit that might be the change they are trying.

I agree though, play players in their positions, Redman's game suffered last year due to Martin, if you are trying him as a mid it's going to suffer again

 

[jdstorm]

cousin brad taking a formula that worked (duz in the guts) and changed it. hope it’s the last we see of those changes

It wouldn’t be a Brad Scott coached season without a stupid offseason positional change that is eventually reversed for good effect. Ie Langford and Martin.

We seem to have 2 options this year already.

 

[Mercurial89]

Also that hawks set play was very very impressive and shows where they are.
Not really the play itself but how it's designed to work tied in with how they recruit (back our runner in open space against you) and when it's called. You don't run that in the first quarter, you run that in the 3rd or 4th quarter when you break a team with your run.
That type of preparation shows why they have made the leap they have.
They recruit with purpose and they play to a system and style, and they coach to their players strengths.
They accentuate a strength in how they do things.

We still run the McGrath run to the right pocket and kick it long.
This is where the coaching just has to be better and more modern, though I do understand why would you bother working on that aspect of the game when you have so many other issues with your list and play. I get it's not high up priority wise.

 

[bombadeer]

Our backline looked slow, really slow. That’s a worry.

However, the biggest worry for me is the lack of good users back there.

Ridley & Reid are fine, although Reid needs time to adapt to the pace and pressure of AFL.

But Shiel, McKay & McGrath are all liabilities.

I’d be playing Redman & Roberts behind the ball - both take the game on, are creative, and good by foot.

Moving the ball by hand? I’d prefer if they didn’t. The Hawks pressure showed it up as a high risk strategy that mostly didn’t pan out.

 

[Vindicater]

It’s an important building year for us. I’m not to worried with that result early. Shows some signs. Hope they bring in Edwards and SEH. The back line has gotten worse. No one willing to take the game on. Someone at the club really needs to sit them down and show em what the best sides do out of the back half.

Playing your most attacking defender (Redman) in the back fifty might help.

 

[fairbump_playon]

Hawthorn find so many ways over the years to be hateable

Stupid effing celebrations

Umpires sucked. Commentators sucked.

Durham, Duursma, Kako, Caddy, all had moments

Jones is going to be a serious player

Caldwell is a stud.

I logically know we are a mid table team but I don’t love seeing us play like one

 

[TheBrightSide]

Was nice to finally see what Reid looks like, I don’t think I’ve seen him play before.
He’s a handsome fella.

 

[Bjchan13]

Are they that good? I know it’s early season but we could easily have had them.

Not that we could've easily had them, but i agree, i dont think they were that impressive, and i don't think we were that bad. They lost the first 5 games last year and nearly made a prelim. Brisbane won the flag after looking like missing finals altogether at the bye. Seasons are long, tonight was essentially still part of pre season for us. I dont think you'd go to the Hawks board and see them jumping for joy tbh.

 

[VelvetSledge]

Genuinely feel like if we wore proper boots and didn’t slip over constantly that score line would have been extremely close

 

[Charliebrow 16]

Thought Jones was pretty terrific last night. For his height, he seems to have that rare ability to hold onto the ball slightly longer than others and make good decisions with it. Time slows down around him.

Caldwell absolutely immense. Imagine him in that Giants midfield rotation - scary. Glad he’s ours. Caddy and Kako will get better the more games we pump into them. Gresham played the sub role to perfection. I hope he didn’t play it too well because he deserves to start next week. Perkins good second half, worked his way into it and started to look dangerous in the contest and up forward. Duursma does a power of work, always consistent, hits the scoreboard and does the defensive dirty work. Great game.

Our backline is still a real concern. Whether it’s the personnel or the structures or our inability to press intelligently, but we got absolutely ripped apart back there as usual. So many out the back, counter attack, over the top goals conceded.

Hopefully we see Edwards, Hayes and SEH next week. We need to unearth a few kids and put some pressure on a few spots that certain players are too comfortable and entrenched within.

 

[Mr Bultitude]

Hawthorn find so many ways over the years to be hateable

This, their ability to do so astounds me.

 

[JayJ20]

Didn’t watch the game but assuming with more scoring shots we had an opportunity to be in the game but what the bed because, well, that’s what Essendon does?

Do we have any positives to take away?


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Yep could have been in it in the 3rd quarter if not for all the behinds as we dominated. It wasn't a bad loss.

There are plenty of positives.

Jones on the wing is a winner.
Kako just has it.
Caldwell has taken another step up.
Durham goes in really hard as does Duursma.
I like Caddy's work rate.
Archie Roberts is already becoming a star.
Reid worked into the game better after a shaky first half.

Honestly, the loss is solely on the defence. Hawthorn are a good side and we competed with them. It was clear match fitness was the difference in the first quarter. Once we adjusted to the pace of the game, we were more competitive.

I expect us to be a lot better next week, but we really need to sort out the defence.

 

[MiguelM]

Genuinely feel like if we wore proper boots and didn’t slip over constantly that score line would have been extremely close

What is the go with boots these days, do the clubs dictate to players what to wear or do they leave it up to the players???

It was infuriating. So many players caught after falling over. McGrath in the goalsquare was a classic example. Club needs to come down hard on this cos Hawks players hardly slipped and the advantage was huge. Very unprofessional IMO.

Like climbing ice without crampons.

 

[eth-dog]

What is the go with boots these days, do the clubs dictate to players what to wear or do they leave it up to the players???

It was infuriating. So many players caught after falling over. McGrath in the goalsquare was a classic example. Club needs to come down hard on this cos Hawks players hardly slipped and the advantage was huge. Very unprofessional IMO.

Like climbing ice without crampons.

There are regulations, have been for nearly 2 decades I reckon. No metal studs, must be molded with a max certain length. Don't ask me what it is but pretty much everyone who plays AFL has that length.

 

[Loonerty]

Didn’t watch the game but assuming with more scoring shots we had an opportunity to be in the game but what the bed because, well, that’s what Essendon does?

Do we have any positives to take away?


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Why not read the thread

 

[ScrappyCoCo]

I haven't looked at our draw at all but it would make sense that if you get a lot of night games, perhaps some of our preseason training should be done at night...and some after the sprinklers had been on at tulla to prepare for all kind of conditions. We looked all at sea and they did not. Something you need to practice to deal with it better.

 

[sydney_gws]

Free kick Hawthorn

Hello Bombers, I must say I was astonished at lack of high contact free kicks you didn't get compared to Hawthorn. Some of the most biased umpiring I have seen.

 

[Test Tickle]

I actually think we did ok, at least we toughed it out to the best of our ability.
It wasn't that bad, we did some really nice things and I can see some improvement on last season.

 

[ant555]

Didn’t watch the game but assuming with more scoring shots we had an opportunity to be in the game but what the bed because, well, that’s what Essendon does?

Do we have any positives to take away?


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Opportunity to get back into the game yes. Positives where we stayed in the game to an extent and where running just as hard as them at the end. And yes a few of the usual suspects made mistake but when the Hawks got on top the young blokes also got torched defensively a few times which is what you would expect and what we will have to put up with. Would not say we wet the bed. We played a genuine top 4 side and in the first real quarter of the year we played hard for the first 15 minutes of so and then made a few errors and let the game get out of control for 10 or so minutes. Coach also made a tactical error early by allowing them to play a 6 on 5 back half which did not help when we have a couple of defensive lapses. The other thing was they simply burnt us for outright speed out of the back half a few times so not a lot we could do there. Hawks will flame a few sides this year. There defence is better now. There midfield is good. Their team defence is good enough. They really only need a good quality KPF in the side to partner Chol.

 

[ant555]

Those changes will answer a few questions I think.

Last year, we rush back an injured Lav and Wright. If Hayes and Edwards come in, we’d officially have more 2025 debutants at Round 2 than we did for the entirety of 2024

Well both of them are injured and not training so they are not coming back in

 

[Vindicater]

Love Roberts.

Love Caldwell and Durham.

Caddy/Kako is something you can build around.

Went in far too tall against a team we know goes in short and fast.